F.5

The Felixstowe F.5 is a four-seater seaplane of British maritime reconnaissance aircraft developed at the end of the First World War. Designed to combine the same payload and the operating range of the Felixstowe F.3 with qualities of handiness and the performances of the Felixstowe F.2a.
The last aircraft designed by John C. Door, the prototype, N90,  first flew in May 1918, the aircraft met expectations, the hull supporting maritime conditions of the North Sea, and production was launched.

To accelerate production and for economic reasons, The F.5 adopted many elements already built for the F.3. Preserving practically only the hull of the prototype, with the aerofoil and the engines of the F.3, the craft had performances lower than the prototype, the F.2a, and even than the F.3.

53 Felixstowe F.5 were built:
Seaplane Experimental Station, Felixstowe: 1 prototype
Shorts Bros 23.
Dick, Kerr & Co: 2.
Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Company: 17.
Gosport Aviation: 10.

F.5 entered service only after the First World War ended, and replaced in the RAF the Felixstowe F.2a, F.3 and Curtiss H-16 . It became the standard aircraft of the RAF until the commissioning of the Supermarine Southampton in 1925. Nine squadrons were in the RAF equipped with the F.5.

The U.S. Navy was interested in Felixstowe F.5 but wished that the craft be produced in the United States and tailored to their needs. Parts were delivered to Naval Aircraft Factory, Philadelphia, in March 1918, and work began immediately. The Rolls-Royce Eagle were replaced by Liberty. The F5L the prototype made ​​its first flight July 15, 1918. Often wrongly called Curtiss F.5L, 227 were built:

Naval Aircraft Factory, Philadelphia: 137 [A3559/3692].
Curtiss Airplanes & Motors , Buffalo 60 [A4281/4340].
Canadian Aeroplanes Ltd., Toronto: 30 [A3333/3362].

The F.5L remained in service in the U.S. Navy until replaced in 1928 by the PN-12, used for coastal patrols or missions of coastal artillery adjustment.

Between 1920 and 1921, the Aeromarine Plane and Motor Company subsidiary Aeromarine Airways, used 8 F.5L surplus from the U.S. Navy. Equipped for the transport of 10 passengers, these were sometimes called Navy Cruiser and were used in November 1920, between Key West , Florida and Havana , Cuba . One of these seaplanes, from the 1st November 1920, flew the first international air mail service on behalf of the U.S. Post Office. Aeromarine Airways also flew the seasonal services Miami - Bimini - Nassau , New York City - Atlantic City and Cleveland - Detroit from July 14, 1922. These were named Santa Maria / Wolverine, Pinta, Niña, Columbus, Balboa, Ponce de Leon, Buckeye and Mendoza. The latter is famous for having flown over New York with 27 people on board in May 1922.

In 1920, Shorts Bros. export some F.5 to Japan, which then bought a license. The arsenal of Yokosuka to build 10, Aichi 40 and arsenal Hiro 10 before developing in 1927 from F.5 Hiro Type 15 (Hiro H1H).

In 1919, NAF built two F.5L [A4036/4037] with a significantly larger surface modified empennage. This tail will be adopted retroactively on F.5L in service.

In March 1919 Naval Aircraft Factory dispatched to New York City a F.5L specially designed for display. An aeronautical exhibition was organized by the Association of Manufacturers and the cell Aeronefs exposure would allow the public to understand how construtction device. So it was a cutaway that should not fly, but he was still a seral number [A-3882]. Transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in 1920, he became well cumbersome when it was decided ten years later to renovate the building that housed. The Smithsonian therefore proposed to return to the U.S. Navy, and this proposal was accepted, but the Smithsonian finally kept the hull, a wing float, a propeller and a bomb. The U.S. Navy had shelled the rest is all that remains today of the family seaplane designed by John C. Door , with the front part of an unidentified aircraft maintained by the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum of Flixton, in Great Britain.